bullet proof vests won't help you now
by tombombadillo
Summary: It's not often that Detective Kate Beckett gets surprised. But then again, it's not very often that she's stuck in the Cretaceous with Rick Castle and a man with a stick called Molly, either.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Because after numerous discussions with Evie, apparently a Castle/Primeval can and will work. And it actually does. Or will. Eventually. **

**For those not in the know, Primeval is a British sci-fi show that deals with "anomalies" in time that can either lead to the past or the future. Dinosaurs. Guns. Hot British men. What could go wrong? (the answer is a lot, but we'll ignore that for now). People should go and watch said show because I need series 6 and I don't think I'm going to get it unless ratings go up.**

**This is the first thing I have properly "published" that isn't Doctor Who, and is the first cross over that I have ever actually attempted. I have a well established knack for not finishing stories that I start but I am determined to finish this one.**

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><p>The scrap yard was huge. Towering masses of cars and unwanted scrap. Inescapable mazes of dented refrigerators and beat up washing machines. Gigantic tree shaped sculptures of bent and twisted bicycles, wheels spinning loosely in the faint breeze. It's barely past dawn, the dim grey light of an overcast New York making everything seem grey and lifeless. It's not the kind of place anyone would want to visit at this time of day and yet there are the unmistakable sounds of somebody moving – running – away from something. Crashes and bangs and smashes echo around, bouncing off, reverberating until it sounds somewhat like being inside a drum kit. In the distance one of the tall towers start to collapse, metal grating against metal, glass smashing and somewhere mixed in there's a roar. It's not human in origin. Nowhere near human in origin.<p>

A man, not particularly tall but still fairly well built appears from behind a beaten up and battered jeep. Dark hair, tangled and matted reaches well past his shoulders. His sleeve is ripped from the shoulder to the elbow and there's a large gash in his arm, along with copious amounts of blood that he can do nothing to stem. He's frantic, looking around for a way out, anything to defend himself from the monster that's slowly advancing on him. He's spent years living in the past. Years where he's survived t-rex's and g-rex's and pterodactyls and various other prehistoric predators he doesn't have names for but are just as equally vicious and intent on eating him for supper. And yet, here he is, struggling to hold off one lousy raptor. _Pathetic_. As much as he hated to admit it, he wouldn't _actually_ mind a visit from Danny right about now.

As much as he hated his brother for what he had done, he couldn't deny that the man was talented with a stick. A stick he would always refer to as _Molly_. To anybody else, Danny would seem crazy. Telling tall tales of fighting off terra birds with a simple blow. Watching volcano after volcano explode in the distance. Watching a Brontosaurus crane its neck above the tree tops. To breath in fresh air that has yet to be tainted by the dirt and the stink of human kind. Not crazy. Real.

Except now he's back in the real world. Modern, if the cars are anything to go by. Maybe he can give Danny the slip and start a new life where ever the hell he was. He couldn't see any tell tale features when he was this deeply buried in junk. There had to be a gate somewhere. There's a piercing shriek somewhere to his left and he darts right only to come up against a wall of old iron girders. He starts to climb, anything to get away from that animal but he's only half way up when he feels the pile begin to slip. He calls out, hand reaching for no one in particular and he's falling. He hits the ground hard, his bones jolting and before he can even register any other pain there's a girder across his lip effectively crushing him. He's never felt this amount of pain before. Even the cut in his arm is a paper cut compared to the crushing feeling on his legs. As strong as his thigh bones are strong, he's reasonably sure something's broken. And he can't move.

A low pitched growl emanates from in front of him, and the raptor appears, head cocked to the side as if somehow surprised by how easy a kill this has ended up being. His breathing quickens because he knows this is the end. Knows that any moment the raptor is going to strike and rip out his throat. And unless this raptor is magically skilled at getting rid of girders, then at least he can have the pride in knowing that his body isn't going to help feed more of the bastards. Unless he's ripped in two. God, he hopes not. A small part of him is tempted to cry out for help, grasping onto that last hope that his brother is magically going to come along and save him. And isn't that what he wanted him to do in the first place? Always a disappointment. Never there when he needs him and always there when he doesn't. If he wasn't about to die he'd find it quite funny, and he even lets a lopsided grin appear at the thought. There's a brief moment of silence where he contemplates the raptor and vice versa before the predator strikes, its mouth open in a vicious snarl.

* * *

><p>Richard Castle's bed is warm. It is warm and it is soft and inviting and Richard Castle does not want to get out of it. And although Richard Castle is very good at getting what he wants (usually) today is not going to be one of those days. He realises that the moment his phone rings and he's pulled out of a dream consisting of zombies trying to perform the musical Chicago, which is a shame because he was really starting to get into it. He fumbles slightly, knocking his alarm clock off as he reaches for it. There's only one person who would ever phone him at this hour in the morning.<p>

"Detective Beckett! This better be worth me getting out of bed on this dismal spring morning."

"By all means stay in bed, Castle. I never _ask_ you to follow me around." Beckett replies, and he can tell that she's yet to have the right amount of morning caffeine to pull her into something resembling a good mood.

"I'll stay in bed if you stay in it with me." He laughs, pushing the covers away with his feet and sitting up. "And you like having me around, admit it. I'm your plucky sidekick, remember?"

There's a sigh (and an accompanying eye roll). "I'll pick you up in twenty."

She hangs up as his feet hit the cold floor of his bedroom. He hisses, making his way to the bathroom in a way that if Beckett had been with him he would be tortured about it for hours. He contemplates shaving, running his fingers across his jaw before deciding that he can forgo shaving for just a day. It's been a while since he's rocked the stubble anyway. He's showered and dressed and is shoving a hastily prepared piece of toast into his mouth when his phone buzzes once and then stops. She's outside. He swings his coat over his arm, shoves his keys in his pocket along with his phone and then picks up the two travel mugs from the kitchen counter. They're already full of his own blend of coffee, mixed perfectly to suit Beckett's tastes.

She's tapping her fingers against the steering wheel by the time he arrives at the car, and she takes the proffered mug from him with a murmured thanks and a grateful smile. They sit and sip at their respective beverages for a few moments, allowing the caffeine to course through them and warm up whatever neurones are still happily asleep at this time in the morning.

"So, where are you taking me on this fine morning then?" he asks as Beckett leans over to put her mug in the cup holder. "Fine and fancy? Deserted and dilapidated? Wet and wild?"

"Scrap yard out by the docks." She replies with the vaguest hint at amusement. "I hope you haven't eaten this morning."

"Piece of toast." Castle replied, remembering the last time a particularly gruesome crime scene had him throwing up the remains of that morning's omelette behind a trash can. "It can't be that bad… can it?" he added, with no small amount of uncertainty. "I mean how many dead bodies have I seen now?"

"I don't know, Castle." Beckett replied, the corners of her mouth hitching up with a smile. "Apparently this one is really quite something."

"I'm sure I will cope."

The sun is trying to break through the low bank of cloud that's hovering over the city by the time they arrive at the scrap yard, and as he suspected, Beckett is in a much better mood. She's even laughed at most of his jokes, which is an added bonus. He spies Esposito and Ryan's car which is still better than Beckett's, and is the source of many of his complaints. He still hasn't got that spring fixed. He follows Beckett, ducking under the yellow tape, willing his stomach to stay calm and to not do that funny back flip thing that it enjoys doing so _very_ much.

But even that does not fully prepare either of them for the sight that greets them. He stops short, and even Beckett swallows hard, the back of her hand pressed tight against her lips. Lanie looks positively disgusted, her usual demeanour apparently left back in her apartment. The victim is male, dressed in a black jacket that looks like a mix between leather and waterproof with a plaid lumberjack shirt underneath. There are the tattered remains of a white shirt of some kind, but it's soaked in blood and guts and beyond recognition. Which could also be said for the front of the man, too. Both his torso and his abdomen have been torn apart which such force that there's random chunks of flesh littered around, some at least ten metres away, already marked with yellow signs. And where he expected to see intestines and stomach and liver and lungs there's… nothing. Nothing except the torn end's of the victim's oesophagus and windpipe and an awful lot of blood. There's a heavy iron girder across the man's legs and it doesn't take an expert to realise that both legs are well and truly broken in more than one place.

"That's…" He's surprised to find Kate's voice as weak and as shaky as he is feeling. "That's… Lanie? What the hell?"

"You're asking me. The entire chest and abdomen have been completely picked clean. No bones, no organs, just a few stringy bits of muscle."

"Professional job?"

"If it was they did a very un-professional job. It looks more like he was ripped apart rather than surgically sliced."

"Cause of death?"

Lanie looked up at the Detective with one eyebrow raised. "Could be anything. Blood loss, shock. He could have been killed before. If he was shot it wasn't a through and through but there's no bullet anyway. No obvious knife wounds. Won't have any idea until I get him back to the morgue."

Beckett wrinkled her nose, barely disguising her disgust. "Alright, thanks Lanie." She turned to talk to Castle, but found that the writer had disappeared. She turned on the spot trying to spot him among the small crowd of uniforms.

"Beckett!" She turned again towards the sound of his voice, finding him disappearing behind a refrigerator without a backwards look.

She rolled her eyes at Lanie who shook her head and turned back to the victim. "Should keep your writer on a leash."

"He is not _my_ writer." Beckett replied, narrowing her eyes at the M.E.

Lanie snorted. "Just keep telling yourself that. None of us believe you, you know."

Beckett gave it up as a lost cause and turned to follow Castle, ducking back under the yellow tape. And then she saw what had got Castle so intrigued.

* * *

><p>"It's been too quiet." Connor Temple sighed, frowning at the scanner in front of him. "It's not right."<p>

Jess turned around in her chair, fixing him with a surprised look. "You sound like you _enjoy_ chasing dinosaurs for a living."

Connor shook his head. "I'm just _bored._"

Jess smiled. "Don't you have a wedding to plan?"

Connor snorted. "Like Abby would ever let me plan our wedding. I have been forbidden from touching anything wedding related. She's out looking at cakes or dresses or flowers." He shrugged. "And I'm _bored_."

"Well, you could always clean, Connor." Said Becker, appearing next to him. "As usual the locker room is a mess. The armoury needs sorting… If you're bored, I could easily find you something to do." He leaned over the back of Jess's chair, a bar of chocolate dangling in his fingers. "Daily chocolate delivery for Miss Parker."

"Anybody would think you're trying to fatten her up, Becker." Connor said, watching as Jess span around in her chair and took the chocolate from the soldier.

"Right, and have her murder for me because she couldn't fit in her bridesmaid dress. I may not understand the female species as well as the next person but I am not stupid."

Connor opened his mouth to respond but was abruptly cut off by the sound of the anomaly detector going off. Jess turned back round, professional head back on, Becker and Connor both leant on the back of her chair, casting their own gaze over the screens. The location of the anomaly appeared and the three of them frowned.

"That's…" Jess said quietly, trailing off.

"Yeah…" Becker replied, forehead furrowed.

Connor turned to look at him, eyes wide in surprise. "What the bloody hell are we supposed to do about New York?"

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><p>Beckett could tell that the John Doe's insides had been dragged along the floor. The blood red stripe was stark against the dirty concrete of the floor, becoming more and more obvious as the morning light increased. "Castle?" She called out, peering around a heap of metal that vaguely resembled an old caravan. There was silence, and she sighed. "Castle?"<p>

With one hand on her gun she followed the blood trail, occasionally calling out for the partner. She wasn't entirely worried, Castle was smart enough to not get himself into any proper sort of trouble, but Castle loved the sound of his own voice and if she called out to him the chances are he'd always respond. She turned another corner, her eyes on the blood trail so at first she didn't see what was in front of her. She looked up, still looking for Castle and then took two steps backwards in shock. What the… the blood trail in front of her had disappeared. Disappeared into what seemed to be a giant ball of golden light. There were giant shards of what seemed like _glass_ but it couldn't be glass because it was _floating_. Floating in mid-air. She pulled out her gun, levelling it at the strange _thing_ in front of her. Castle wasn't stupid enough to touch this thing, was he? With his enquiring mind of course he was. Panic sets in, low in her stomach at the idea that whatever had killed the victim may have got their hands on Castle.

The light emanating from the golden ball flickers slightly and for a moment the scar in her chest makes itself known and her grip on her gun tightens. The rational part of her brain tells herself that isn't the scope of a sniper. She _knows_ it isn't. But the small part of her brain, the one that makes her doubly aware of when she's looking down the barrel of a gun, the one that makes her jump when someone slams a door, or the time when she turned up on Castle's doorway soaked to the skin because a stupid roll of thunder had scared her and she hadn't wanted to spend another night in her apartment drowning her own sorrows in a bottle of whiskey. That night still plays on her mind when she's not distracted by a case or her own thoughts. The way he'd pulled her through the door without a word – he knew why she was there, he always knows – and had pulled her through his bedroom and had started running a bath. She'd stood there shivering, watching him as he worked silently. As extravagant as the rest of Castle's apartment was, the bathroom itself was modestly small and it wasn't long before the room had filled with steam and the smell of chocolate (which she found odd in itself).

_He turned around to face her. "Clothes off." Kate started, fixing him with a glare that was supposed to be annoyed but she was certain was coming off as more scared. Castle sighed and rolled his eyes. "Kate… you're soaking wet. You can't exactly have a bath in your clothes."_

"_Rick…"_

"_I'll close my eyes." He placed hand flat over his eyes._

_Kate was too tired to argue with him, let alone check that his eyes were actually closed. She pulled her shirt over her head, shaking her hair free. She bent down to pull off her socks but a loud peel of thunder that seemed to be right above her head had her turning around and staggering backwards, right into the chest of Richard Castle. He had an arm around her before she was even aware of it, his palm flat against the scar on her ribs. "It's just thunder, Kate. It's not going to hurt you."_

_If it had been any other time she would have shoved him away and demanded him to get out of the room while she undressed but feeling him pressed against her back and with his arm around her - protecting her – she wasn't inclined to move. She found that her hands had fisted into his shirt and she could feel her own nails digging into her palm, even through the material. She let go, breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth until she felt her heart rate slow down. He didn't try to stop her when she moved away from him, just simply let his hand slide across her stomach and fall back at his side. "Sorry, I just –"_

"_Kate, you don't need to be sorry." He smiled at her, before leaning over and dipping a hand in the bath water. "I think this is hot enough." He tilted his head at her slightly. "I'll leave you to it. Yell if you need me, okay."_

_Kate shook her head slightly, feeling the corners of her lips tug upwards into a faint smile. "Thank you, Rick."_

"_Always." He replied, before ducking past her and through the still open door, pulling it closed behind him._

* * *

><p>"New York?" Lester blurted out, his eyes bulging somewhat like a toad. "What are we supposed to do about New York? I can't just send you to New York! I can't <em>afford<em> to send you all to New York. Can you imagine Connor in New York? He'll be distracted by something shiny every five seconds."

Abby sighed (not because it what he was saying _was_ true) and slumped sideways in her chair, the complete opposite to Captain Becker who (yet again) had refused to take the seat Lester always offered him. Never off duty, that was him. She knew there was nothing they could do about New York except wait and hope that there was no creature incursion and that the anomaly would simply close on its own. It's all they could do, really. Sit and wait and hope. And if something did happen, then they'd just have to hope that whatever law enforcement they had in New York was able to sort it out. Maybe the government should look into opening more branches worldwide. It would save a whole heap of bother.

"The best we can do is contact the relevant authorities and leave them to deal with whatever may happen." Becker said, calm and collected as always. "Jess is keeping an eye on it."

"Keep me informed. And can somebody give Connor something to do? He makes me nervous when he's doing nothing."

"I've told him he can clean the armoury or the locker room, but he turned it down. I don't think he's that bored."

Lester turned to Abby. "Can't you give him something wedding related to do?"

Abby raised an eyebrow at him. "And have it blow up in my face? I don't think so. Besides, it's next week. There's not a lot left to do. I have it all planned and ready and I am not letting him touch a single thing. Bored or not."

She stood up and shot a withering look in Lester's direction before leaving the room. Becker offered Lester an apologetic look. "If I was the one getting married to Connor then I'd be just as stressed as her. She'll be back to her normal Abby self afterwards."

Lester laughed, somewhat sarcastically. "Being married to Connor? I highly doubt it."

Connor caught up with Becker outside Lester's office, and he had to admit it was slightly un-nerving to see the guy constantly jumping around and fidgeting. "Hey, Becker, let's hope that Godzilla's not going to be making a re-appearance, hey."

Becker narrowed his eyes at him. "What?"

"You know, giant over grown lizard that attacked New York. Could have been a t-rex."

"Yes, but it _wasn't_. It was a lizard that had been exposed to ridiculously high levels of radiation. Nothing dinosaur about it."

"But wouldn't it be cool if it was?"

"No, because it took uncountable amounts of fire power to bring that thing down. We have tasers. I think Godzilla would win."

Connor shrugged. "Spoil sport."

"You tell that to the next t-rex that tries to kill you." Becker replied, clapping Connor on the back. "You will be more than glad that it is not Godzilla, I assure you."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I don't know why this took so long to get out. I had all the plot, but I just couldn't write it. BUT ANYWAY, Chapter Two.**

**Disclaimer: Castle writers can probably afford to get someone to decorate their house for them. I can't. And I'm still covered in paint.**

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><p>There have only been two times when Richard Castle can actually remember being speechless. He's had trouble getting words out and they've stuck in his throat, sure. But he's only been completely struck dumb once before, and that was the first time he held Alexis. Now… now there are no words that could at all describe the vista in front of him. Intense blue skies, scorching sunlight, he can feel the heat on his cheeks already. He's stood on the crest of a hill, at the top of a long slope of stony scree that disappears into the fringes of a forest about fifty metres away. Beyond that there's another hill, beyond that more valleys, more hills, more forests. And if he's not mistaken, and he really hopes he isn't because this is <em>so<em> cool, but that's a volcano over there. A real, active, exploding volcano. Well. He says exploding. There's a lot of lava, but that's about it. And he's not in any real danger. He hopes. Maybe he should go back and get Beckett. Not that a bullet is going to do much against lava. He turns around, aiming to go back through the big shiny ball of golden light but finds that he has actually been standing in what would be the blood trail that he'd been following in the first place. The cop part of him (a part he's only really recently discovered) tells him to go and get Beckett. The writer/explorer/big child in him tells for him to follow the trail until either he runs into the source or he loses it. And as cool and as amazing as this place is… he would rather have some form of protection with him, where ever he's going. He takes one last look around and turns on his heel, disappearing back into the mass of light.

He calls out before he actually reappears because he knows Beckett's going to be there and he knows she's going to be aiming her gun at whatever _this_ is and he knows that she is a shoot first ask questions later kind of cop, survival pending. Even more so when it comes to something like this. She's going to be angry at him for even going near this mystical ball of shattered light, but he doesn't mind. He can cope with angry Beckett. He likes angry Beckett. Happy Beckett, flirty Beckett, sexy Beckett, focused Beckett, confused Beckett. The many, many emotions of Beckett that she's taken to show more and more lately. Of course, that means he gets unhappy and broken Kate, too. The times when the heartbroken young woman breaks out of the detective shell and try as she might, she can't hide it. Can't hide the scar at her wrist that he eventually saw and eventually wormed it out of her over a late night Chinese at her desk. He'd managed, somehow, and he applauds himself for this, to get her to agree to getting a spare key made for her apartment so that at least if she needs it that there's someone there. He's pretty sure she regretted it the moment she handed it over though. Not that he cares. She's not getting it back now. The pressure inside his ears lessens and he finds himself stepping out of the light and he's back in New York, staring straight down Beckett's gun. Well, he's staring past the gun and at her and those magical brown eyes that are glaring at him. Yup. Angry Beckett. "Castle, what the hell did you think you were doing?"

"I was following the blood trail! But you have to see this, Kate! It's… I can't describe it, you have to come with me."

It's the breathless child like joy in his voice that has Beckett sort of half contemplating saying yes. "Castle… we don't even know what _that_ is!" she's still got her gun aimed at it, though her gaze has moved to Castle who has stepped away. "Do not think I'm going through it."

"I have! And look, I'm fine! And the blood trail. You can't ignore the blood trail. It's evidence, right?" He steps up to her, all puppy dog eyes and pleading and pouting and _damn_ him. "There's nothing dangerous through there, Beckett. Other than the murderer, obviously. But there's a trail leading straight to them! Easiest case ever, right?"

"Castle, it's a giant ball of _I don't even know what_ and you're seriously suggesting that we go through?"

"To catch the killer, yes. And to see the view."

"The _view_?"

"Yes! The view! But you have to see it for yourself, seriously." He's got one arm at her elbow, tugging on it slightly. "You won't regret it."

"I regret a lot of stuff with you, Castle." She rolled her eyes and lowered her gun. "Fine. But I swear, if we die, I'm so haunting you."

"Can a ghost haunt another ghost? Is that technically possible?"

"I don't know, but I'll do my damned hardest to try." She frowned at the light in front of her, forehead furrowing in consternation. "Castle, I really don't know about this."

"Beckett, it'll be fine. Trust me, okay?"

She sighed, maybe over-exaggerating her annoyance just the slightest bit. "We really should wait for back-up… at least get Espo and Ryan. We should have more than one gun."

"We'll be fine."

"What, with my gun and your rapier wit? Sure, that's all the ammo we need."

"You're armed, I'm dangerous. Come on, it _works._"

"Yeah, I don't think you're the kind of dangerous you're talking about." She took a step forward towards the light. "Alright, you first."

"That's a first. Usually it's _I'm the cop, Castle. I'm the one with the gun. First through the door, as usual_."

She bit down the urge to grab hold of his ear. Infuriating man. "Just walk, Castle."

She didn't question him when he took hold of her hand, but judging by the look he proceeded to give her he expected her to. Instead she raised her lips in the barest hint of a smile and nudged his side with her knuckles. "Go on then."

She didn't expect the sudden pressure that gripped her chest when she stepped through and she gasped, clutching Castle's hand harder. It's not there for long and before it becomes too unbearable it's gone and she's left standing, breathing in air that is so much cleaner and so much fresher than the city that she's momentarily dizzy. Not that the view in front of her helps. Kate let out a breathy "wow", raising the hand that wasn't still wrapped around Castle's fingers to push her hair away from her forehead. "That's…"

"Unbelievable?" Castle offered, quirking an eyebrow at her.

"To put it mildly. But… what the hell just happened?" Castle opened his mouth. "And don't say CIA. Or aliens. Or anything at all remotely connected to a conspiracy theory."

"But-"

"No. We're here for a blood trail. Not sight-seeing." She pointed downwards and left. "That way."

"After you, then."

"No complaints about me going first this time." She smirked, setting off down the slope.

"Well, like you always say. You're the one with the gun. We have no idea what or where this place is. There's a volcano, for heaven's sake. You are more than welcome to give me your gun and let _me_ go first, but you're far too stubborn to ever do that."

"The world will end when I give you a gun."

"You did give me a gun. And I do remember saving your life with it."

"You said yourself that you missed."

"Oh, you're all about the negatives, aren't you." He sighed. "I am quite capable of handling a gun."

"Yeah, that's what scares me."

They followed the trail downwards, heading slowly towards the edges of the forest below them. It mostly resembled a pine forest, and for all he knew that's what it was, but he had no idea where he was and had no way of correctly identifying what kind of tree it was. It smelt vaguely of pine at any rate. The sun was warm against his neck and he envied Kate her long hair covering the back of her neck. That hadn't stopped her peeling off her jacket and draping it over her elbow as they went, mind you. He could tell by the look on her face that she kept wrinkling her nose as she went, something having made her stomach turn. He'd see why moments later, bits of flesh that had caught on stones had started being an occasional occurrence a while back. Neither of them had an idea how long the blood trail had been there and in the baking heat it really was starting to whiff a bit. It took them a lot longer than expected to reach the fringes of the forest, and he could tell that Beckett was getting anxious about getting back to New York and the world that they knew.

"We should have told someone where we were going." She grumbled as she looked back up the hill. "Gates is going to murder us, you know that don't you?"

"Gates always wants to murder us."

"No, she wants to murder _you_."

"Well, if she does murder me then at least I know I've got you to bring me justice, right?"

"I dunno, I might give it to 11th so I can investigate a proper murder."

"Kate, I am wounded."

"Better not be. I'm not dragging you back up that hill." She looked uneasy at the prospect of going into the forest, which up close looked dark and formidable and all kinds of creepy.

"We could always sing We're Going on a Bear Hunt." Castle suggested, peering over her shoulder. "You know, can't go under it, can't go over it, we'll have to go through it.

Beckett turned her head slightly so she could glare at him sideways. "I am _not_ singing a children's book."

"Oh, come on! It's a classic! We're on an adventure, Kate! Don't make me flutter my eyelashes."

"It's never got you anywhere before, I don't see why it would now." She tightens her grip on her gun, steels her resolve and looks back at Castle. "You ready?"

* * *

><p>He's not panicking. Danny Quinn does not give in to panic. It's not the first time he's lost track of Patrick, but it is the first time he's lost track of his long lost brother and not been able find a single footprint or broken twig or a flock of disturbed birds to guide him. And he's not going to panic. The only way he's going to panic (and he means that in the smallest possible way because Danny Quinn <em>doesn't<em> panic) is if he catches sight of an anomaly. And even then he's only going to not panic if there's the slightest hint of humanity. Nope. No panicking done on his side. Panic does not exist in this dojo. He's standing in the middle of a clearing, the world more or less deathly silent around him. Molly is primed and ready in his hand, still crusted with blood after a vicious fight with a pack of Raptors a week before. He has yet to find a place where he can wash it. Where ever he is, it's lacking in water. He's had to keep hydrated by chewing on leaves. He wasn't dehydrated at all, the leaves worked wonders on a dry throat, but he really did need a wash. Sure, it wasn't a shower, but it at least got rid of most of the grub and sweat. And in the stillness of the place, he's not expecting to hear somebody yelling. Or just talking, really loudly. Singing? That's not Patrick. There's two people, one definitely male. He's singing. The other is female. Telling him to shut up. They sound vaguely… American? His knowledge on accents is not what you'd call perfect.

He's running before he's aware, because if there's people, and if there's people then there's an anomaly. The voices are growing louder, something to do with a field of wheat. Wheat? What the bloody hell was this man singing? If he was any louder he was going to bring a dozen or so raptors down on them. And who was going to have to defend them? Oh, yeah. Him. Danny Quinn: Dinosaur fighter. It doesn't take him long to find them, he bursts out from behind a tree, stick at the ready. Of course, he doesn't expect to have a gun pointed at his face. He's been shot before –_thanks, Matt_- but never with an actual proper gun.

He actually has the gall to push her gun away with his stick. The ginger haired crazy looking caveman actually pushes Beckett's gun away from his face. With a stick. He'd laugh if it wasn't quite so serious. The stick is covered in blood. The man is grimy to the point of being a walking puddle of mud and he _smells_. Like, literally he stinks to high heaven. He's used to dead people, and the smell of rubbish and decay, but _this,_ this is like the guy hasn't washed in _months_. It's all he can do not to gag. Beckett, at least, has re-centered her gun and the man in front of him has at least refrained from pushing it away again. And isn't quite threatening to bash her over the head with it. She's got her hand out back towards him, wiggling her fingers and he knowingly plucks her handcuffs from her belt and hands her them.

"Drop the stick, turn around, hands above your head."

The man frowns at her. "What for?"

"You're under arrest on suspicion of murder."

The man opens his mouth. "I'm sorry… what?"

"Drop the stick, turn around, hands above your head, or I will make you." She hissed, taking one step closer to him. "I am not afraid to shoot you."

"Just so you know, the only things I have killed are dinosaurs." He lets the stick fall to his side, but doesn't loosen his grip on it. "I am, or was, a police officer."

Castle leaned forward over Beckett's shoulder. "Look, I don't know you and I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt when you say you've only killed dinosaurs, but you really, really do not want to make her angry. And you really, really are going to make her angry."

"I'm not trying to make anyone angry. I'm just stating the truth. And I'm not crazy, thank you very much. I make a living from killing dinosaurs."

"Dinosaurs are extinct." Beckett replied, eyes narrowed.

The man grinned. Castle sighed. He really was being an idiot. "You have no idea where you are, do you? You just walked through an anomaly and found yourself here."

"An anomaly?"

"You know, the big ball of golden light. That's an anomaly. It leads to different points in time. Either the past, or the future. Right now, you're slap bang in the middle of the Cretaceous. I'm not dangerous. The only way I'm going to hit you with this stick is if you're a raptor in a disguise. And I'd bet you a roast dinner that your murderer isn't human. Let me guess, suspect got ripped apart? Organs missing, dragged off? I'm presuming so, considering the blood trail you're following. But you don't want to go any further. Not unless you want to arrest a hungry pack of dinosaurs. And I don't think even you're tough enough to do that."

"The… Cretaceous."

"Yes."

"The Cretaceous… as in millions of years in the past."

"_Yes."_

"You're crazy."

"The evidence is all around you! How else do you explain all of this? You're from New York. A city built on concrete. You really think you can just walk through a gate and find this on your back doorstep? How else do you explain the volcanoes? The parrots, the _everything_."

"It doesn't make _sense."_

"You're a homicide detective. Since when does anything _ever_ make sense?" He looked at her gun. "Now, are you going to stop pointing that gun at me? I'm not going to attack you. I'm not your killer. You don't need to arrest me."

"You'd be surprised at how many people say that." Beckett replied drily, but she loosened her grip on her weapon, letting it drop to her side. "Alright, give Castle the stick."

"Molly."

"What?"

"The stick. She's called Molly."

"You named your stick…" Castle frowned. "Are you absolutely sure you're not crazy."

"Listen, I have been here for nearly a year and a half. A year and a half with no human contact except the occasional conversation with my brother. He's the crazy one. The one that murders people. Believe me, you start naming things."

"Wait, your brother? Where's he?"

The man shrugged. "I lost sight of him. I'm trailing him to make sure he doesn't go through an anomaly to some place where there are humans. He likes to cause havoc. I don't suppose you've seen him, have you? Dark hair, curly, down to his shoulders. Resembles a tramp."

"Beckett…"

Beckett sighed, reaching for her phone. "Yeah, we've seen him. He's our victim." She passed her phone across to him, and he took it examining the photo carefully. "Is that him?"

"Yeah. That's Patrick." He ran a hand over his face. "I guess that's it, then."

"Guess what's it?"

"I'm only here because I needed to keep an eye on him. He's dead. I can go back to England, go back the Arc and live a life with hot running water and fish and chips and bangers and mash. Where's your anomaly?"

"Back that way and up a hill…" Castle replied. "What's an Arc?"

"Anomaly Research Centre. There's a whole bunch of us. Captain Becker, Connor, Abby, Matt and Emily. And Lester."

"Right. Well, I'm still not convinced you didn't murder your own brother. But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt for now. But I want to take you in for questioning."

"By all means lead the way. But can I at least wash first? I don't think you want me stinking up your station. And I don't suppose I could get a coffee, could I?"

He can hardly believe his luck. He's found people. People that aren't his crazy, warped and twisted brother and are willing to get him home. NYPD, Detective Kate Beckett and Richard Castle, just NY. He's a writer, she's a cop. It's a strange kind of puzzle, but their pieces seem to fit. She's stubborn and serious, he's playful and giving. And he's not being arrested. He has the promise of a shower and a mug of coffee and he should be sad that Patrick is dead, he should, and he is. In a way. He was – still is – his brother, but he wasn't his _brother_. Not anymore. Not after he disappeared all those years ago. And it just means that humanity is no longer in danger from some crazed murderer. It means he can go home. He follows the New Yorkers back through the forest, following the blood trail to the edge and to the hill. He can't see an anomaly. Not yet. But they had to get here somehow. There has to be one somewhere. It's not until Beckett and Castle stop in front of him that he realises something's wrong. The anomalies not there. It's gone. He's still stuck. They're all stuck.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH DIALOGUE CENTRAL. Not entirely sure about this chapter. But ho hum. You always have off days.**

**Disclaimer: I don't think Andrew and Co spent Friday evening crying over Seamus Dever talking about bicycles and helmets. Which I so totally didn't do. Nope. You can't prove anything.**

* * *

><p>It's Esposito who first notices that Beckett and Castle are not anywhere to be seen. He turns to Ryan, meaning to ask him if he's seen where they'd gone off to, but his partner looks like he's too busy concentrating on not throwing up his breakfast to notice. Typical honey milk. He turns to Lanie who looks just as disgusted, but is in full control of her stomach. "You see where those two went?"<p>

"Castle found something. I expect they'll return sooner or later. Now will you get him away from my body?" she nodded at Ryan, who looked more than happy to beat a hasty retreat.

"Which way did they go?"

Lanie gestured over her shoulder. "That way. I think. I was pre-occupied with this."

Esposito left the M.E. to it, following Ryan in the direction that Lanie had pointed. He'd seen his fair share of gruesome bodies, both at crime scenes and not, and it's not the first time he's seen a body that's missing various parts of their anatomy but never to this extent. He's never seen an entire chest cavity completely ripped apart before. Something for the books.

"Well, I think we know what got Castle so excited." Said Ryan, pointing ahead of him. "Blood trail. Just the sort of thing he'd enjoy."

"Who the hell drags a hunk of meat through a scrap yard?"

Ryan lifts an eyebrow at him. "Come on, this is not the strangest case we've had. At least this should lead us to the killer. Easiest case ever, right?"

"Bro, when has anything ever been this easy?"

"I'm just saying."

The two followed the blood trail, mimicking the actions of the other detective and her partner. They both had their guns drawn, ready to fire at a moment's notice, should the situation require it. They didn't expect any trouble, both of them reasonably sure that they would have heard something if Beckett and Castle had gotten themselves into trouble _again_. The two of them just seemed to be a magnet for trouble. They carried on in silence until they turned a corner, and stopped.

"Trail ends here." Ryan said, lowering his gun a fraction. "A dead end."

"There's no chance a car could have got in here. And why drag it this far in the first place?" Esposito replied, turning around in a slow circle. "And where are Beckett and Castle?"

Ryan already has his phone out and pressed his ear. "Beckett's going straight to voicemail. And so is Castle." He adds, after a minute.

Esposito sighed. "Gates is going to kill them."

* * *

><p>Even though they have since learnt that his name was Danny Quinn, Castle still preferred to call him Caveman in his head. And with his stick and mop of unruly ginger hair and frankly disgusting clothes, the resemblance was striking. Still, at least he wasn't wondering around wearing nothing but a loin cloth. That would have been… interesting. Caveman is currently staring down the barrel of Beckett's gun, and Castle admires the guy's guts for staying strangely calm.<p>

"What's happened?" Beckett demands. "Where's the anomaly?"

"It, er… closed. They do that." Caveman replies.

"And how do we open it again?" she hisses.

"You can't. They open and close themselves at random. We used to be able to control them, but the machines were destroyed. Otherwise I wouldn't be here."

"So…" Castle said, looking around him carefully. "We're stuck here?"

"'Fraid so." He shrugged. "But hey, at least you've got human company. I know it's not exactly… homely, or at all comfortable really, but hey. I've lived for a year and a half. I'm sure you can."

Beckett looked ready to shoot the man in the foot. Or maybe the thigh. "I am _not_ living _here_ for a year and a half."

"Well, I hate to break it to you, love, but you've got no choice in the matter."

Castle tried to raise a finger in warning. "I woul-"

But it was too late. Beckett had already taken another step closer, and another until the barrel of her gun was pressed against his abdomen. Now, at least, Caveman looked suitably scared. Well, it serves him right. "I. Am. Not. Living. Here." She used her gun to push against him and he stumbled backwards a few steps. "And don't call me love."

"I did warn you." Castle sighed, pushing his hands into his jeans pockets. "What do we do now?"

"Don't get eaten by dinosaurs. And stick with me, you'll be alright."

"What part of I am not living with dinosaurs did you not understand?"

Caveman sighed and stepped forward, pushing Beckett's gun away with his free hand. "Look, Detective. You can stay here and sulk and whine your pretty little head off all you want, but the chances of that anomaly re-appearing in the next few minutes are as slim as the Queen dancing the Cha Cha Slide. I don't know whether you American's are aware of the Queen's customs, but one does not simply get up and dance. Or, you can do the sensible thing, and you and your partner here can come with me and actually have a hope at getting home. I am perfectly capable of going off on my own and leaving you two here to fend for yourself. That ammo's not going to last forever, and Raptors and worse are not going to leave you alone."

Castle couldn't decide between applauding the man or telling him to turn around and run away. Fast. He opted for rocking back on his heels and maintaining a silence more fitted for a close friend's funeral. But he had decided that he rather liked Caveman, despite his current appearance. "Beckett, I know you may not like it… but it's obvious we're not going to get back to New York anytime soon."

"What's your point, Castle?"

"Well… I'm just pointing out, he knows what he's talking about. He's obviously been here a while. And it's better to be in a group, right?" He's hesitant about agreeing with Caveman, because he knows that Beckett can just as easily round on him. "He knows what these anomaly's are. We should trust him."

Beckett turned her head to look at him. "You think?"

"Yes."

"Alright." She holstered her gun. "Fine. But I will shoot him if I have to."

Caveman nodded. "Noted. Now, shall we get going? The sun's going to be setting anytime soon and we need to be out of the way." He turned on the spot, starting to walk up the hill and away from the forest. "Anywhere away from that pack of Raptors is good enough for me."

Castle and Beckett watch him go for a moment before following in his trail. "I like him." Castle grinned.

Beckett huffed. "You would."

* * *

><p>"Still no sign of Beckett or Castle?" Gates asks, as soon as Ryan and Esposito have arrived back in the precinct after bringing in the security footage of the front gate at the scrap yard. It's the only camera that's actually in the scrap yard, but hopefully it show everybody arriving and leaving.<p>

"No, Sir. Phone's are still off line. They haven't been in contact with anybody."

"There's no sign of them leaving the scrap yard?"

"We're checking now, but the security guard says he hasn't seen them since they drove in. If they have been taken, then they're either still in there somewhere, or the security guard isn't being entirely truthful. The camera will tell us more when we've looked through it."

Gates sighed, shaking her head. "What am I supposed to do with those two? Keep me informed."

Espo ducks his head. "Yes, Sir." He closes her office door behind him before dropping into his seat. "They really are going to be dead when she gets her hands on them."

* * *

><p>They couldn't have been walking more than an hour. Beckett has marched ahead in the direction that Danny had directed, preferring to work out her anger and frustration by walking and refusing to talk to anyone. Castle was clever enough in the ways of Beckett to know that he should just leave her be. Instead, he hung back with Danny, interrogating him (in the nicest possible way) about anomaly's and arcs and dinosaurs. It was worth putting up with the smell.<p>

"Abby and Connor are the only original members of the team left. Or were. I've not seen them in a while. There was Professor Nick Cutter, and Stephen Hart, but I never met him. Cutter was killed by his crazy ex-wife which is why I'm here in the first place. Myself and Abby and Connor came through an anomaly to stop her wiping out the entire human race. Connor got himself injured and I went on ahead through another anomaly. Helen got killed through a mixture of a Raptor and a cliff. I got stuck."

"And now there's…"

"Now there's Captain Becker, who loves guns more than is considered healthy, Matt Anderson, grumpy and sarcastic, Emily Merchant, no idea where she's originally from but she's smart and doesn't do orders, and then there's Jess Parker who sits in a chair tapping at a keyboard. Gives directions and the like. Led by our fearless leader, James Lester. As sarcastic as they come. We're a raggedy bunch."

"Oh, yeah. I know all about raggedy bunches. And these anomaly's… just what are they exactly?"

"No idea. You'd be better off asking Connor. All we know is that they're gateways in time, and that they can be stopped by using some form of electrical field. Also magnetic." Caveman nodded towards Beckett. "Anyway, enough about me. What about you two?"

"What about us two?"

Caveman nudged Castle's side with his elbow. "You know. You doing the hokey pokey. The horizontal tango. Doing the deed."

"We're not… It's not like that."

Caveman laughed. A full on belly laugh that made Castle doubt the state of the man's mental state, just a little bit. "Then what is it like?"

"Complicated."

"Isn't it always?"

"What exactly are we looking for here?" Beckett asks once they'd stopped for a rest. They'd long since left the forest behind, moved onto a scrubland that looks like it's just been taken out of a Lion King movie. "It seems to me we're just walking for the point of walking."

"We're looking for water. I need a wash, and I'm fed up of using leaves to stop getting dehydrated. Though, if you happen to find an anomaly then that would also be a big help. Preferably one that leads to modern day London."

"How likely is that?"

"Honestly, no idea. But you never know, we might just get lucky. It's happened before by complete accident. I mean, there have been anomaly's all over the UK, it's just being in the right time at the place."

"Right, and what if we can't find an anomaly back home by night fall? What about then?"

"You'd be my good luck charm if we did. I don't think I'd let you go back to New York if I was back in London by the time the sun sets. You can stick with me. But no, sleep up a tree. In a cave. Any place you're not going to get eaten by dinosaurs."

"What kind of dinosaurs are we talking about here?"

"Oh, Raptors. T-Rex's. Triceratops. Pterosaurs. Pteranodon. I don't know, how long have you got? And not just dinosaurs. Lots and lots of things that are perfectly capable of killing you."

Castle had never been more glad that Beckett had her gun with her.

* * *

><p>"Castle household! Martha Rodgers, speaking."<p>

"Mrs Rodgers? Hi, it's Detective Ryan here, from the precinct. Have you heard from your son recently?"

"No, not since this morning. Has he done one of his disappearing acts again? I keep telling him that it's only going to get him into trouble, but does he ever listen?"

"Beckett hasn't phoned you, either?"

"No, dear. The phone has been quiet all day. They'll turn up. They usually do. You don't supposed they've snuck off for a romantic liaison? It is those two, after all."

Ryan paused, pulling on the phone cord. "No… I don't think so. Beckett would never wonder off in the middle of an investigation, and Castle knows better. I think. I hope."

"I wouldn't worry your head about it, Detective. They both have a knack of wondering off. They'll turn up in a few hours after working out whodunit and then they can have all the romantic liaisons they want. Go have a cup of coffee and wait. Rest assured, they'll be back."

"I, erm, well, thank you Mrs. Rodgers."

"You're welcome. If either of them happen to ring me I'll be sure to let you know."

Ryan hung up, sat back in his chair and sighed. None of this made any sense whatsoever. Sure, the two did have a surprisingly talent for finding trouble in the strangest of places. But they'd never managed to disappear in the middle of nowhere for no apparent reason. The security camera had picked Beckett's car going in, but no sign of them going out. Esposito had ended up driving the car back for them. And three hours later there was still no sign of either of them. No phone calls. No sightings. No nothing. They had nothing to go on. They were in the wind.

* * *

><p>It had been Castle who had spotted it. A dark hole set in the side of a cliff that was overhung with a large tangle of some form of bramble. It seemed like the perfect spot to spend the night. And after a thorough exploration Danny had deemed it safe enough to habitat. He at least hoped that some form of dinosaur had yet to mark this their territory. Caveman had said that they should have one of them on guard anyway, and Beckett had already thrown herself down outside, point blank refusing to move for at least ten minutes. Castle had laughed, choosing to further explore the cave. Caveman had been more than happy that there had been the slightest trickle of water at the back and had spent five minutes using it to scrub most of the dirt off his skin before he had left them to go and find some form of wood for a fire.<p>

Outside the sun was slowly dipping below the horizon, turning the sky and the surrounding land into a vast array of colours; pink and oranges and gold's and browns and long black shadows. Kate sat and watched, legs crossed, gun in lap. She hadn't seen any recognisable dinosaurs, though and she still wasn't entirely sure that she wasn't under the influence of some strange sort of hallucinogenic drug. A very powerful and very realistic hallucinogenic drug, but a drug none the less. There was really no other explanation for it. Because there was no logical explanation for her being millions of years in the past. No explanation at all, whatsoever. Castle seemed to believe that this was all real. Not that this surprised her, the guy loved his conspiracy theories. The guy who was now standing at the cave entrance happily snapping pictures of the sunset before settling down next to her, close enough for her knee to occasionally brush his thigh. Not that she minded.

"That's one hell of a view." He said, slipping his phone back into his pocket.

"It's something, alright." She replied, somewhat tersely, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands. "Just a shame it's not real."

"What? What do you mean it's not real? Beckett, it's right in front of you!"

"It's just… some form of drug. This isn't… it can't be real."

"Well, it's a very good drug considering we're both having the same so called visions."

"Yes, but the Castle in my vision _would_ say that." She replied. "For all I know you could be on the moon. And knowing you, that's probably more likely."

"So, Kate Beckett has fantasies about living with dinosaurs?"

"Shut up, Castle."

"Was that a smile?"

"No."

"I think it was a smile!" he nudged her shoulder with his. "That's good. You should smile more."

"I smile plenty, thank you very much." She grumbled, closing her eyes and sighing.

"Do you think Caveman will come back?"

"We have shelter and water. I don't see why not. Besides, he has a stick. I have a gun."

"His will last longer though. Besides he seems to know how to survive in the Cretaceous. Hey, did you see that dinosaur before? Did you ever think that when you woke up this morning that you'd have spent the day dinosaur hunting?"

"We're not dinosaur hunting." Beckett insisted, turning her head and fixing him with a glare. "There are no dinosaurs. It's all in our head. So is Danny, or Caveman or whatever you want to call him."

"But seriously, Beckett. I know a person's imagination is a magical thing, but there's only so much it can do. How does it imagine all the different shapes of those rocks, the horizon. All the different colours, the smells, the sounds. All the names, the personalities. It's _real_, Kate."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: URGH I'm so sorry this has taken so long, I've just been so bogged down with life and crap and bollocks and eurgh yes anyway. CHAPTER FOUR. Honestly, it's rubbish and made up of a crap load of dialogue and I honestly apologise.**

**And Jess might seem a tad out of character, BUT SHE'S GROWN UP SINCE THE END OF SEASON FIVE and yes. She's not the giggly girl she used to be. She's still just as upbeat and positive about everything (and still completely in love with Becker, but honestly, who isn't?) SHE'S JUST GROWN UP OKAY.**

**Disclaimer: I WASN'T SHOT IN THE CHEST AND I DON'T REMEMBER EVERY SECOND OF IT.**

* * *

><p>It's not the first time they've woken up lying next to each other. And he's reasonably sure, hopeful even, that it won't be the last. Granted the first time they had just been kidnapped by some secret government agency and drugged. And the second time was after being drugged (he's hoping this isn't going to be a recurring theme) and handcuffed together. But now. Now it's because they needed sleep. Sleep and warmth. And with Danny keeping guard by the fire, there was really no option other than for the two of them to curl up on the softest bit of ground they could find, close their eyes and attempt to sleep. Which is easy for Kate to say, she's used to catching sleep whenever she can. Whether it be in the break room at the precinct or half an hour in her car where they're taking turns in keeping an eye out for a suspect. She lies down, closes her eyes, and he's pretty sure she's out like a light. Or something. Castle finds it a lot harder. He keeps hearing the crackle of the fire, the sound of some form of animal outside, and really he can't help but stare at Kate. He's seen her asleep before. It's not anything new. But he rarely sees her as relaxed as she does when she's sleeping. Though, really, he'd hardly class it as relaxed. She's still as tense as ever, her hand tight around her gun. But she's resting, and that's probably something she should do more of. He lies on his back eventually, hands behind his head, staring up at the rocky roof of the cave. The light from the fire makes shadows on the roof and he lets his imagination run away with him, stories of princes and princesses, an evil witch (isn't that always the way?) and daring rescues, and before he knows it he's jerking awake a few hours later to Kate shifting against him. She's waking up, and he's tempted to tell her to go back to sleep, but she's already telling Danny that he needs to rest too. It's on and off dozing after that, and it's only when he wakes up to find the cave filling with early morning light did he decide it was time to get up.<p>

"Morning." He says, stretching upwards and feeling his back crack.

"Hey." She replies, turning to look at him. "You sleep well?"

"Yeah. Surprisingly. How long have you been awake?"

She shrugged. "Three hours, maybe. It wasn't fair on Danny to make him sit there all night."

"But according to you, Danny's just a figment of our imaginations. I don't think figments of imaginations tend to get tired."

Kate sighed. "Castle."

"Sorry. You should have woken me up. I would have kept you company."

"Right, and have you miss out on valuable sleep? You're grumpy when you haven't had your eight hours."

"I am not!" Castle exclaimed, nudging her with his elbow. "Take that back."

"No!"

"Take it back or I'll tickle you."

Kate laughed. "Right. Tickle me and I will not be held responsible for any injuries that you acquire."

"So, Kate Beckett is ticklish."

"I never said that."

"But you might as well have. Why would it bother you otherwise?" He grinned at her. "Only the ticklish don't like being tickled."

"I swear, you use it against me and I will kill you." Kate replied, only half glaring at him. Really, she was too amused to be that annoyed at him. And there wasn't anything to be annoyed at, to be honest. "But only after we get home."

"You think we will?"

Kate didn't really want to think about what would happen if they were stuck here for the rest of their life. She didn't want to be ninety and be living with dinosaurs. If she even lived to that age. She might have been eaten by a Tyrannosaurus Rex by then. Still, at least it would be quick. "I'm not thinking anything at the minute. Don't want to get my hopes up."

"I don't think we're going to spend the rest of our lives here. I mean, Danny's been home once, hasn't he?"

"Yeah, but he was here for like two years. Do you really want to live here for two years? You're going to be reported missing. Your daughter is going to think you're dead. Everyone is going to think you're dead."

"_Kate."_

She winces. He rarely snaps at her. "Sorry. I am, I just… this whole thing is _crazy_."

"You keep saying that. It doesn't help."

"_You're_ not helping."

"Do you two always argue like this?" They both turned, finding Danny looking at them out of amused eyes.

"Yes." They replied simultaneously.

Danny was still on the hunt for some form of water source, and as soon as possible they were up and back on their feet and walking away from the cave. Danny wasn't sure if they'd come back to it, and it wasn't long before both it and the cliff were out of sight. It wasn't that he didn't like their arguing, because he was used to it. The number of arguments that had broken out back at the Arc were frankly ridiculous (most of them were not between himself and Becker, obviously) but these two… it seemed everything the other said meant a snide comment from the other. Granted, it was usually Beckett doing the back talk and Castle batting it back with some other come back. Back and forth, back and forth. It was like Wimbledon with sarcasm. And apparently he was referee. Fan-bloody-tastic. "If you two are going to keep being mean to each other then I'm going to split you up." Danny said eventually, turning around after hearing what must have been the fiftieth _shut-up-or-I-will-make-you _sigh from Beckett.

"We're not being mean to each other." Castle replied, somewhat defensive. "This is how we work."

"Yeah, well it's bloody annoying."

"Well no one _asked_ you to be here." Beckett grumbled.

"Well you'd be dead if I hadn't."

"Oh, really? Cause so far I haven't seen any form of danger whatsoever. I think we would have coped just fine without you."

* * *

><p>It's the perfect spot really. A large pool that doesn't seem to be inhabited by anything resembling danger, and a cave just a stone's throw away. Danny doesn't waste any time in pulling off his clothes. All of his clothes, which leaves Castle gaping a bit and Beckett turning around with a slight blush on her cheeks. They decide to leave him to it, making their way up the slight incline and to the cave. "You not going to have a swim?" Castle asked Beckett as she shrugs off her jacket and leaves it on a rock.<p>

"Maybe later. When there isn't a naked man in there with me."

"Wouldn't have thought you'd have a problem with naked men." Castle asked her, barely managing to keep his face straight.

Beckett fixed him with a glare and he laughed. "I'm kidding. Don't shoot me."

"Maybe not yet. If I'm going to shoot anybody, it'll be Danny."

"Oh, he's not that bad."

"Ha! You would say that."

"You're just jealous that there's another alpha in the mix. You're too used to leading. And here's Danny. He's elbowing in on your patch."

Kate turned on him, one finger poking him viciously in the chest. "I am not jealous, Castle. He's not putting his elbows anywhere."

"Well, for someone who says they're not jealous, you are very defensive about it." He replied, pursing his lips with a smile. "It's okay to admit it, you know. Jealousy is a very human emotion."

"Shut up, Castle."

"How do you think they're doing back home?" he asks her once they've sat down outside the cave. It's far too hot to not sit out in the open air.

"Well, I can't speak for Alexis and Martha, but I expect Gates is tearing her hair out. Blaming you, of course. Ryan and Esposito are probably still trying to ID Patrick, or Ethan, or whatever the hell he's called. Interpol will take forever to look through, and I don't know if Missing Person's from the UK are at all broadcasted in the US. And I think that dinosaurs are probably the furthest thing from their minds. Nobody expects dinosaurs to be roaming around New York in the 21st century."

"I can't wait for Gates to hear this one." Castle said with barely suppressed glee. Beckett could practically see him bouncing.

"I am so leaving you to explain that one. I wouldn't even attempt it. It'd be like poking a bee hive with a stick. You're actually asking for her to section you."

"Your concern is touching."

"I think what Gates doesn't know can't hurt her."

"Yeah, but she thinks dinosaurs are extinct and look what happened there! Patrick gets mauled to death! In the 21st century! In New York! By a dinosaur!"

Beckett shook her head. "She is not going to believe you, Castle. Not when it comes to dinosaurs."

"I could always videotape one. Phone still works."

"She'll find a way to dispute it. You know she will. And don't say anything about kidnapping a dinosaur and bringing it back with you. That will not end well."

"Can you kidnap a dinosaur?"

"I forbid you to try."

"But I'd be famous!"

"Wait… you're not the world famous, best-selling novelist Richard Castle?" Beckett said, raising an eyebrow at him. "Or was all that a joke just so you had an excuse to follow me around?"

"Oh, ha ha. So funny."

"If you even attempt to bring a dinosaur home with you then I am banning you from the precinct. For all of eternity. It's never, ever going to happen."

"What if I use my puppy dog eyes on you?"

"No, no, and definitely no."

"Just a small one!" he turned himself to face her properly, eyes all alive with excitement.

"And where would you keep this small dinosaur? I don't think Alexis would want to share."

"I could convert the spare room. No one uses it anyway."

"And your guests would sleep… where, exactly? I don't think they'd appreciate being forced to sleep on the sofa because of a _dinosaur._"

Castle shrugged. "I could always move. Get a proper house, you know. Out in the suburbs. Lots of room. Big garden, so it could run around. Train it to fetch the newspaper. It'd be so _cool_."

"You are not moving to the suburbs, Castle. It'd take you about five hours to get to the crime scene."

"And there was me thinking you'd be _happy_ at me being absent. I wouldn't mess up your crime scenes, or provide you with crazy theories that keep you guys _so_ entertained."

"Yeah, but who's going to bring me coffee now? Free coffee every morning is the only reason you're still here. Haven't you learnt anything by now?"

* * *

><p>Ryan threw his phone down onto his desk with an exasperated sigh. He couldn't even be bothered putting it back on the hook. He was fed up, tired and irritated. "There's nothing. Absolutely nothing in any database in the US." He growled, leaning backwards in his chair. "The guy doesn't exist."<p>

"Have you tried Interpol?" Esposito asked from his own desk, tired and grumpy himself from looking through hours of airport footage.

"It's running now, but it's a massive database. It could take a while. How's the airport footage?"

"Pointless. There's no evidence to even say that he came in on a plane, and even if he did it could have been months ago. But we've got nothing else to go on."

"And still no sign of Beckett or Castle?"

"Nothing. No camera footage outside the scrap yard, phones are still going straight to voicemail. They're not at home. They have literally vanished off the face of the earth."

"Abducted by aliens again?"

"It wouldn't be the first time they've disappeared."

"Yeah, and every time they nearly die. Which isn't at all reassuring, but we've got nothing to go on. They could be anywhere."

"They'll turn up eventually. Castle's like a bad penny. He gets everywhere."

Ryan sighed. "Yeah. We hope."

Half an hour later Ryan's phone was ringing again and he picked it up with a dejected sigh. "Detective Ryan."

"Detective Ryan, NYPD?"

"Yeah, that's me."

"Hi, this is Jess Parker. I work for the Anomaly Research Center in the UK."

"The… wait, what?"

"It's not important. Official Secrets Act, whatever. I understand you're currently looking for someone? We have his file tagged here, in case anyone ran a search on him and your search popped up on my screen this afternoon."

"Are you serious? Who is he?"

"Well, his real name is Patrick Quinn, but he also goes by Ethan Dobrowski. Can I ask why you're enquiring into him?"

"He was found dead in a scrap yard yesterday. His chest cavity was torn out."

There was the sound of somebody trying not to wretch on the other side of the phone and Ryan grimaced, leaning backwards to get Esposito's attention. "Sorry. That's… kind of disgusting. But he's dead? Definitely dead?"

"Erm, yes. Dead as a dodo."

"Oh, thank god."

"Why?"

"Oh, we had a bit of trouble with him a year or so back. Caused us a lot of trouble. I don't suppose there was any sign of anyone else around? Another guy? Ginger hair, walks around like he's a chimpanzee?"

"No. Nothing apart from a blood trail that stopped mid-trail. Don't suppose that means anything to you, does it?"

"Ohhhhh. Oh, bloody hell. There haven't been any reports about, urm, animal attacks have there? Like, vicious ones?"

"Not that I'm aware of…"

"Right. Okay, okay good. Listen, I'm gonna need to send a team out to New York. Would it be possible to get your e-mail address so I can send you details? They're going to need to be shown where the crime scene is, and that trail of blood."

"Woah, woah, hold on. This is _our_ crime scene. Our investigation. You're in the UK. How do you expect us to wait for you to send a team here? We need to catch a murderer!"

"Yeah, you may not _actually_ have a murderer _to_ catch." Jess said slowly, as if gauging Ryan's reaction. "But I can't talk over the phone. The team will explain when they get there."

"Look, thanks for the information on our dead guy, but-"

"Look, Detective Ryan. I know this is hard to believe, but if you don't let us help then you might end up with a seriously bad, um, pest problem. And I don't believe that you are at all equipped to deal with the kind of animals that you may or may not encounter while you are investigating this murder. I wouldn't even call it a murder. By the sounds of it, it's an animal attack. Just… not an animal you're accustomed to. Connor and Becker and Abby will explain all, I promise."

Ryan closed his eyes, counted to five, ran through all the options that he didn't have and sighed. "Fine." He replied eventually, giving Jess his e-mail address through gritted teeth. "Though my boss isn't going to like this."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I'm a horrible, horrible writer and I do apologise. I swear I keep writing the beginning of this and then losing it and urgh WHY MUST YOU DISAPPEAR WHEN I TRY TO WRITE YOU. Okay I wrote the majority of this while trying to not have a panic attack about various things that are currently f*&^%Ng my head up so I apologise if this is a load of absolute crap, but the only way of getting myself out of a panic attack is to write, so.**

**also Becker/Tank is a ship that exists. Becker/Guns, essentially. I MISS HIS SHOTGUN sigh.**

**Disclaimer: in my headcanon Beckett jumps around her apartment singing Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne in between seasons 2 and 3. I don't think Marlowe shares this.**

* * *

><p>To say that Esposito is shocked would be an understatement. He's used to the crazy theories, from Castle and Ryan (as much as it pains him to have Castle Jr. as a partner), and it's really not a proper murder case without Castle's ninja assassins. But as he sits and watches as these three new arrivals try to explain away dinosaurs and anomalies and time and Cretaceous, he's shocked that Gates hasn't arrested them and then carted the three of them off to holding for wasting police time. Or off to a mental hospital. Even with photographic proof of these so called anomalies, it's frankly ridiculous. There is no such thing as gateways in time leading back or forward in time. But the worst part is, Ryan seems to believe them. Says it explains the murder. Explains Beckett and Castle's disappearance. Explains everything. Except it doesn't explain how exactly the two of them get back. And he's not ready to believe in that if it means they're stuck with dinosaurs for the rest of their lives.<p>

"Do you have a way to get them back?" Gates asks Captain Becker, arms folded and gaze steely.

"We may. It's new technology and barely tested, but Connor here is one of the most gifted people when it comes to that. If he can't make it work then i don't know who can." he replies, calm and collected, hands clasped behind his back.

Mental state aside, Esposito likes the former soldier. There's nothing like a man in charge who knows what he's doing to keep the nerves steady. And he's giving as good as it gets when it comes to Gates's questions. It's what Ryan needs right now because his partner is sat next to him, all stiff and tight jaw with a vein ticking away in his forehead. Espo nudges him with an elbow. "Relax, bro." he says, keeping his voice low so as not to disturb Gates's questions.

"And opening an anomaly may be all well and done, Captain, but what are you going to do to actually get them back? How do you know they haven't moved away from where the anomaly used to be?"

"We have strict rules about going through anomalies, sir."

Connor laughed. "That's just you, Becker."

Abby effectively silenced Connor with a rather vicious elbow to the ribs. Esposito can't help but smirk. "We've had trouble with people going through anomalies before." Becker carries on. "I'd rather not lose anymore of my people than is necessary."

"And what if I supplied people for you?"

"By no means disrespectful, Sir, but the more this is kept on the down low the better. We are covered by the official secrets act and I want as few people as possible knowing about this."

"Well, I'm sure Ryan and Esposito here are more than up for the job."

"You're going to need weapons."

Gates smiled. "That won't be a problem."

Connor turned to Becker. "Guns, Becker. You like guns."

* * *

><p>"These mosquitoes are coming after me and me alone, I swear." Castle whined, slapping his arm for what must be the twenty seventh time. "Beckett, why don't they like you?"<p>

"Think of it as a compliment, Castle. Your blood is better than mine." she laughs, closing her eyes against the sun. "You could always move."

"But I'm comfy here!"

"Then quit complaining!"

"You're so sympathetic." he grumped, flapping his arms around to try and dispel the irritating bugs.

"Four years and you're only learning this now? I'm offended, Castle." Kate replied, pressing the back of her hand to her mouth to stop from laughing. He did look ridiculous.

"Well, you're a very big onion, what can I say?"

"I don't know whether to be amused or hit you."

"It hurts when you hit me. Please don't do that again."

"I only hit you when I need to. And you probably deserved it."

"So did not." Castle grumbled, flicking another mosquito off his arm. "Just like I don't deserve to be eaten alive by damn mosquitoes!"

Kate sighed, sitting up frim where she'd been lying nextvto the pool. "We'll get back to the cave then." she stood up, dusted off her trousers and held out her hands to him.

He stared at them a moment, eyes glancing back up to hers, but she's got a smile on her face and he's not going to pass up an oppurtunity to hold both of Kate Beckett's hands. And she doesn't let go until she's sure he's steady on his feet. Oh, he grins at that. And doesn't stop until they reach the cave.

* * *

><p>"You can see the longing in his eyes." Connor whispers to Abby, watching as Becker, Ryan and Esposito make their way around the armoury.<p>

"Connor." Abby replies, rolling her eyes at the ceiling.

"But look at him! He's like a kid in a sweet shop!"

"You do realise that I can hear you, don't you Connor?" Becker sighed, exasperated.

"Er... I do now?"

"What kind of guns are we going to need?" Esposito asks, stopping in front of a large array of machine guns.

"Hand guns are all well and good when it comes to things like raptors, but you're going to need heavy fire power against anything bigger." Becker replies, turning on the spot to get a better look at what he's got to work with. "Don't suppose you've got a tank, do you?"

Esposito laughed. "Like Gates would trust any of us with a tank."

Ryan, on the other hand, looked slightly un-nerved. "When you saying anything bigger... just how big do you mean?"

"Well, you know, the typical. Tyrannosaurus Rex, Albertosaurus, Corythosaurus, and Parasaurolophus are all fairly sizable. They're not going to go down without a fight."

Ryan visibly paled.

* * *

><p>Beckett's insisted on taking the night watch. Castle tries to talk her out of it. Begs and pleads and turns his puppy dog eyes on to full blast. It doesn't work. Beckett refuses to acknowledge any of his pleas, just stares at the horizon with a determined look on her face. Danny's somewhat thankful, he's tired and could really do with a decent nights sleep. And if the one with the gun wants to keep guard all night, then she's more than welcome to. He's not going to complain. It's nice to have some proper human company around, someone that he can talk to and at least have them talk back. Molly's all well and good when he just wants to <em>talk<em> to something, but wooden sticks don't talk back. These people, they talk. Castle more than Beckett, he's noticed. Castle uses words, tends to launch into long speeches about conspiracies and cover ups and government agencies and ninja assassins. Beckett prefers to sigh, roll her eyes, growl or glare. In a way she reminds him of Becker. No nonsense. No apparent sense of humour. Scary when angry. Not one to be intimidated by something as ridiculous as a dinosaur. But she's handy with a gun and knows how to take care of herself, and that's all he cares about. Castle, on the otherhand, is like an overgrown child. He's Connor, just older and American. And apparently he's a best-selling novelist. Somewhere in the back of his mind the name registers, but he's never been a fan of murder novels. But he can't deny, the guy is entertaining. Spinning ridiculous stories that only kids would believe but somehow managing to make them seem somewhat believable to adults. And he finds himself hanging onto his every word. It's kind of nice to sit around a fire, not quite hungry but not quite full after a meal of roasted newt and some berries with people. Actual living people. A year and a half of living in the Cretaceous and he honestly never expected for him to find living _people_. Not from the twenty first century at any rate. Maybe the first kind of humans. But not present day.

Eventually he has to call it a night. It's late as it is, the moon is high in the sky and the stars are bright, lighting up the scenery around them brilliantly. At times he really regrets not bringing a camera. He'd make a fortune from selling these back home. He bids Castle and Beckett good night, debates leaving Molly next to the fire before handing her to Castle, who yet again commentated on the fact that he named a stick. Danny has long since given up trying to explain himself. The cave is not particularly warm, and it takes a while before he stops shivering. Eventually he falls asleep, dreams of sword weilding monkeys and men in black suits.

He couldn't help but stare at Beckett all evening. The light of the fire casts her face into shadow, her cheekbones more prominent, her eyes shadowy. She's been quiet most of the evening, save a few comments based on his over-active imagination, but he expected those. But he doesn't like brooding Beckett. He wants confident Beckett. A Beckett who's not sure of herself scares him.

"You're thinking." he says, eventually. He's quiet, and he can barely hear her over the crackle of the wood on the fire.

"Everybody thinks, Castle."

"Yes, but you're _thinking._ You're thinking too much."

He can hear her sigh. "Castle-"

"A problem shared is a problem halved, you know."

She huffs at him, pushes her hair behind her ear. "It's not a problem. I'm just... sorting things out in my head."

"Like?" He doesn't expect her to tell him. He expects a brush-off, a hesitant smile and an order to get some sleep.

"That night... with the thunderstorm. When I couldn't sleep."

* * *

><p><em>The storm had progessively worsened as the evening wore on. He'd successfully managed to distract Beckett from the worst of it through card games, board games, movies... hot chocolate and marshmallows. She was almost feeling okay. He could see that familar confident spark back in her eyes. But by then it was nearing half two in the morning, and neither of them could keep their eyes open any longer. They both pretended that her borrowing one of his shirts as temporary pyjamas meant absolutely nothing. He wished her goodnight at the bottom of the stairs. She went up. He went left. And then it's 3am and he's still awake. He doesn't concentrate on the lightning. He's got his eyes closed, and he can't see out of any windows as it is. But he can hear the thunder. And the more he listens the louder it seems to get until it seems to be the only thing he can hear, echoing around his brain for minutes on end. It's not until there's a particularly loud boom that he notices 'd gone through his study,grabbed hold of a shelf in surprise and knocked a couple of books onto the floor. Of course, that only serves to scare her more and it's the gut-wrenching sob that forces him out of bed to reach her.<em>

_She's not crying. Whether she's not as bad as he thought she was or whether she's just being stubborn he can't tell, but she lets him pull her into his room regardless. She doesn't even complain when he points wordlessly to the opposite side of the bed. Just crawls under the covers, curled up as tight as she can get. He doesn't even stop to think about the fact that she's in his bed wearing one of his shirts, just climbs back into bed next to her. He can hear her breathing. In through the nose. Out through the mouth. Repeat. She gets there slowly. Stretches out. Opens her eyes."I'm sorry. I couldn't sleep."_

_"Kate, there's no need to apologise. I couldn't sleep either." He's lying on his back, one arm draped across his stomach, the other propping his head up so he can look at her. "Don't need to say sorry for getting me out of bed."_

_"I thought I was alright. I-"_

_"Kate, stop trying to explain things. You don't need to. At least, not right now. Just, close your eyes. Try and relax."_

_She hummed. "Right. Relaxing. How do you do that again?"_

_"I should teach you one day."_

_"Imagine a meadow?"_

_He laughed. "Something like that."_

_"Okay. Imagining a meadow. Goodnight, Castle."_

* * *

><p>"I woke up the next morning to find that you'd stolen all of the duvet. I was cold." he laughed, shuffling closer to the fire, sticking his hands out for warmth.<p>

Kate chuckled. "Yeah, I'm not a good bed sharer. But I did make you coffee with breakfast." she replied, pulling her jacket further around her.

"I figured, and I was very grateful. So why are you trying to sort that out in your head?" he asked, head tipped slightly to the side.

"Because... you don't just... we don't just share a bed. It's... it meant something, and I'm trying to work out what. That's all."

He's a little taken aback at that. Yes, that night meant something. But he's not entirely sure whether it meant the same thing for the two of them. He always said he'd wait. And he would. He'd wait until he was seventy and a grumpy old man with a walking stick if he needed to. "Kate-"

"Castle, can we not do this now? Please?"

"I-Kate..."

"Just let me get things straight. Go to sleep, and let me think."

He's tempted to say no. Tempted to stay there and talk to her about absolutely everything. Whether or not anything happens... that's unclear, but suddenly he wants everything out in the open. He wants her to know how he feels, and even if they can't act on it just yet... but of course, he knows Kate. And he knows that forcing emotions out of her is like trying to squeeze blood from a stone. She'll talk when she's ready, that much he knows. "Promise me you'll wake me up if you need me."

"Yes. Fine. I will." she's smiling at him from across the fire.

It's not one of those mega-watt grins that makes his heart gallop and his stomach flip, but it's a smile and it's good enough for him. "Goodnight, Kate."

"Night, Castle."


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: GUESS WHO'S LAPTOP WORKS AGAIN operation stick it in the airing cupboard for three weeks and then cross your fingers and close your eyes and just switch it on WORKED**

**Disclaimer: I don't think Marlowe sighs at his laptop screen when Nicole Kidman tells Hugh Jackman to leave WHY WOULD YOU TELL HUGH JACKMAN TO LEAVE~!1?1!2? (though I wouldn't blame him if he did because Hugh Jackman hot diggity **_**damn**_**)**

* * *

><p>Five days.<p>

Five days they've been stuck in this cave. The rain outside is torrential, nothing like she's seen in New York. Or anywhere. It's like somebody up there is just tipping bucket after bucket of water through the clouds. All three of them are damp and hungry and cold. She's the first to admit that she's not handling it well. Danny's remaining stoically silent, as always. Even Castle's stopped talking. But that might have been because she kept snapping at him. She hates herself for it because he's not done anything wrong. She just misses her comforts. She needs coffee and a warm bath and an actual mattress. She needs _home_. It's all well and done for Castle whose ability to adapt himself to any situation, no matter how absurd it may be is serving him well. He can still laugh and joke as usual, finding a childish like glee in the fact that he's currently living with dinosaurs and a caveman. She's jealous of how easy he finds it. Where as she can't do that. Her bad mood will shine through anything she tries to hide behind. It always has done, and Castle is an expert at knowing when she's stuck in a rut. But even Castle can't pull her out of this one.

Danny has made the brave decision of venturing outside because they really /do/ need something to eat and she's sat at the entrance to the cave purely because if she sits with Castle they're just going to end up arguing. She's fed up of arguing. She's fed up of this. She wants to wash. A proper wash with hot water and shampoo and body wash. Not a swim in a pool. She wants burgers and chips and strawberry milkshakes and a soft bed with a quilt and pillows. But no. She's stuck in the Cretaceous with Richard Castle and a man who has a stick. Called Molly. Brilliant.

"Kate?" there's something about the way he calls out to her that banishes her annoyance, she turns to where he sits at the back of the cave.

"What is it, Castle?"

"I don't feel well."

She frowns. "It's just a cold. Man up."

"It's not a cold."

"Stop being so melodramatic, Castle."

"Kate, I'm serious." And somehow she knows. This is bad. He's going to be ill, and there's nothing she can do to help. If this isn't a cold... if he needs hospital treatment... they're screwed. She doesn't know what to do.

He tries to get up, he does. But his legs feel wobbly and his head spins and he has to sit down again with a groan. Kate's by his side almost instantly, one hand on his arm, the other reaching out for his forehead. "Jeez, Castle, you're burning up."

"I'm hot?"

He see's Kate suppress a smile in the darkness and he wants to laugh but the cave still spinning slightly. "You can innuendo me later, Castle."

"Is _that_ an innuendo?"

"_No_. Can you lie down?"

He nods, leaning back against the rock. His vision blurs and swims and he finds himself reaching out for Kate for some kind of anchor. He finds her thigh which is good enough for him, let's out a sigh.

"You're dizzy?"

"A little. Only when I move."

"Alright. Just stay there a moment."

"It's not like I can go anywhere else, Kate."

"Yeah, right. Sorry." she finds the hand on her thigh, squeezes it before placing it back on his chest. "I'll be right back."

He watches as she pulls off her jacket, leaves it at the entrance to the cave before she's stepping out into the rain and pulling off her shirt. She's standing in the rain in her trousers and bra, holding her shirt out so it's wet. It's a sight he never thought he'd see. And he can't quite take his eyes off the faded pink line that runs up her side. It's not quite as harsh as he imagined it would be, but then again it's been months since her surgery. All scars fade. Though not these one's. These are too big. She'll have them for life. She's back, kneeling next to him. Still in her bra. If he was feeling more like himself he'd make a joke. Any joke. But he's not. He feels /horrible/. But he does reach out and press his fingers against her side, feeling the roughness against his skin. He hears Kate's breath catch in her chest and he knows there's another scar he needs to see. And he could see it. But he's not at the right angle and he's not sure he wants to. She's folding up her wet shirt and it's dripping on him and it's /cold/. It's even colder when she presses it against his forehead and it surprises him. "Sorry." he hears Kate says, and it's breathless. He's concerned why until he realises his hand is still at her side. "Try and get some rest, Castle."

"Are you staying?"

"I'll be right here."

She wants to run her fingers through her hair like her mother did when she was ill. Curled up on the sofa with Temptation Lane, her head on her mother's thigh, the feeling of her hands carding through her hair. Over and over again. Relaxing. Soothing. Calming. But she won't because that's too much. Too much too soon. All she can do is sit against the wall, her jacket wrapped more securely around her and watch him. He fell asleep not that long ago, but it's fitful and he keeps jerking awake for brief moments. It scares the crap out of her in all honesty, and she finds herself more on the edge than she has been in the past couple of months. The last thing she needs right now is to breakdown. She hears a noise outside, the sound of scrambling and heavy panting. She finds her gun, holds it steady. She's glad her hands aren't shaking. Of all the times to miss, this should not be one of them. She lowers it when she see's it's Danny. He's dripping and soaked and naked from the waist up. He's got something wrapped up in his shirt and she can't work out whether she wants food or warmth more.

"Where's _your_ shirt?" Danny asks, dumping the firewood into the middle of the cave.

"Castle's got a fever." she replies. "He's burning up."

"Anything else?"

"Dizzy, mainly. But that's it. So far."

"Those are two symptoms of-"

"Yes, I know that. And I'm trying not to think about it."

Danny looked unsure, looked across at Castle. "We'll keep an eye on him. You hungry?"

"You've got food?"

"A fair bit. I'll need help getting it up though."

Kate stood up, glancing across at Castle. Peaceful for the time being.

The fire does put them in a better mood. Along with the food that although doesn't leave them wholly satisfied, is warm in their stomachs and alleviates most of the hunger. Even Castle perked up at the smell of the roasting meat. Kate's happy enough when she sees him eating a fairly decent amount, and he seems to be keeping it down for the time being. A good sign, at least.

"How're you feeling, Castle?"

"Better after food and sleep. I'm good."

She wants to believe him. She does. But there's a niggling feeling in her stomach that betrays her. But it's so dark in the cave that she can't quite see what he looks like. He's sat himself in one of the most shadowy places and all she can see is his eyes. They are bright, but it could just be the reflection from the fire. She has no idea. She wants to lean over and test his forehead just to see but he's too far away. She suspects he did it on purpose, purely for the fact she'd out of arm's reach, the stubborn idiot. He even offers to keep watch tonight, and she wishes he wouldn't. He needs to sleep, and she argues with him about it. He doesn't push her away, not as such, but he has hold of her arms, turns her around so she's facing the back of the cave. Danny has already settled down for the night, which is another thing she's jealous of. He seems to be able to fall asleep anywhere. In the end, she gives up, but she stays close to Castle. She doesn't want to sleep. She wants to stay awake and make sure that he's okay.

"Kate, go to sleep. I'm fine."

"You know I don't believe you."

"Yeah, I know. But it doesn't make it any less true. Look, if I start to feel ill again then I'll wake you up."

"Castle-"

"No, Kate. You need to sleep. And I've slept most of the day."

She wanted to argue with him. Oh, she did. He was stubborn and stupid and being a pain in the ass and he's _ill_. But she's tired and exhausted herself, and it doesn't do for both of them to be at least eighty percent. "Fine. But the moment you feel at all bad, wake me up."

"I will, I promise."

He knows the moment that she (finally) succumbs to sleep that he's not going to wake her. But what he told her is true. He doesn't feel particularly ill anymore. A little bit fuzzy perhaps, but he feels okay. The cool night air is helping clear his head and his lungs, and maybe it was just a brief moment of not feeling one hundred percent well. He's okay. He'll be fine. He's Richard Castle and he doesn't do getting ill (he says as his stomach gives a nasty lurch, and he has to swallow past it). Twenty four stomach bug. That's all it's going to be. It's not like they're eating particularly well at the minute. Some form of roasted roots and meat if they can get it. He's not surprised that he's feeling ill. Though Kate seems to be worried about him, which is quite strange because really he's the one usually worrying about her. He tries to focus on the scenery, the stars

She wakes to the sound of vomiting. She scrambles up, her eyes already on Castle's hunched form. He's got one hand on his stomach, the other gripping the cave wall to try and keep himself balanced. The moment her hand wraps around his arm he seems to lose all sense of stability and falls backwards until his back hits the wall, sliding down until he's in a slumped mess on the floor. "M cold." he mumbles, drawing his limbs up.  
>Kate looks back at the fire, it's close to going out but nudging the embers with her foot she manages to coax it back into life. Trying to get Castle over to the fire is harder than it seems. He's not exactly the lightest of people.<p>

"Hurts, Kate."

"I know, I know. I'm sorry. It'll be over soon, just another metre."

He groans into the ground when she lays him down, and she pushes his hair away from his forehead. "It's okay. It's over."

"Cold."

"I know." She runs her hands through his hair again. "Just get some rest, Castle."

* * *

><p>"It was here?"<p>

"Yeah. The trail ends down there." Ryan points to a spot a few metres away from where they're standing, surrounded by so much equipment he can't even begin to name. Wires and boxes and switches and buttons and levers and frankly he's scared to even touch_ anything_.

Connor starts to lug boxes towards the spot where the trail stops, halts his movements when he notices no one else is helping him. "That's alright. Leave all the hard work to me. It's not like you're police guys, and you're an ex-soldier, not strong at all are you."

Becker huffed, moving from where he was leaning against a battered car. "Thought you could use the exercise."

"That's so kind of you." Connor grunted.

"What does all of this stuff even do?" Esposito asks, bending down to look at all the equipment.

"Sends waves of _stuff_ into the air. Not particularly hundred percent effective, but it might make the anomaly open again. It recognises left over residual more _stuff_ and then…" Connor moved his hands, miming something expanding. "Boom." He frowned. "Well, not boom. It's not going to blow up. I hope. Hasn't done before."


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: I just had a lot of BPVWHYN feels and thought ARGH MUST WRITE**

**Disclaimer: the passcode on my ipod is 2409. Not that I'm counting down to the premiere. At all.**

* * *

><p>"Wow." Ryan says, for what must be the tenth time in a minute. "That's just… wow."<p>

"It's one way of putting it." Replies Connor, standing there with his hands on his hips. His grin is infectious, and it's not too long before Ryan can feel the tug at the corners of his own mouth.

He breathes in, feeling the rush of clean and clear oxygen fill his lungs. How long has it been since he's been out of the city? Too long. He's not counting his honeymoon, because, to be fair, who spends that much time outside on their honeymoon?

"So what now?" Esposito asks, too busy checking his weapon to even look at the scenery around him.

"Well, the blood trail goes that way. But there's no way of knowing which direction they went in after that. They needed food, and water, and who knows what dinosaurs they've met? They're very territorial."

"So, what you're saying is that they could be anywhere?"

"More or less, yeah. I'd come with you, but Becker and his rules… he gets a little grumpy if you don't do what he says. Besides, I've already spent a year living with dinosaurs. I would rather not do that again. So, I'm going to leave you to it."

"And the anomaly won't close, will it?"

"No. Not when we're keeping it open."

"And… you're sure about that?"

"Tried and tested."

"You said you weren't sure it was a hundred percent effective." Ryan said, eyeing Connor with a baleful eye.

"No, that's just when it comes to actually opening the anomaly. Once it's open, it'll stay open. Now you've got rations for about a week, plus water purifiers. You should be okay."

"What if we don't find them?"

"Then you come back and we work out another way of getting them back. They're smart, right? They'll know to stay as close as they can to the anomaly."

"Not if they need water."

"So, you need to look for the closest water supply. And some form of shelter. Follow the blood trail. There might be something there. And if you do come across any dinosaurs then turn around and run like hell in the opposite direction."

"And just what are the chances of us being mauled by a T-Rex?"

"Um… try not to think about those. It's usually the best way."

* * *

><p>He won't wake up. He's been unconscious for well over twelve hours and no matter what she or Danny do, there's no rousing him. She can still feel his pulse, weak and unsteady, underneath her fingertips but it doesn't fill her with confidence. Danny says there's nothing they can do. Unless they get him to a hospital in the next couple of days it's not like likely that he'll open his eyes again. Kate nearly screamed at him. Castle was not going to die. He was far too stubborn and annoying and irritating to die on her. But as the hours ticked by, and he didn't show any sign of waking up… she was getting all the more panicky that the next time she checked his pulse she wouldn't find one. How could she live with herself after that? How was she supposed to go, if she even got back at all, to Alexis and Martha and tell them that Castle had died from Malaria millions of years ago? That was not a conversation she wanted to have. Ever. They'd lock her up. Padded white cell. Gateways into the past? Don't be silly. No such thing, they'd say. And Richard Castle would just be another missing person. Except he wouldn't be. He'd be a rotting corpse, doomed to be buried under tonnes of earth and rock as the landscape shifted, the world evolved. The thought made her want to throw up. God, he didn't deserve that. He deserved so much more. A funeral befitting the man that he is.<p>

"Staring at him is not going to make him wake up." Danny says, not for the first time.

Kate glares at him. "If he wakes up, I need to be here."

"What part of he's not going to wake up without medication do you not understand?"

"You don't know Castle. He wouldn't just… give in. He's a fighter. He'd wake up just so he could bug me about CIA and ninja assassins."

"You're wasting your time. He's as good as-"

"Don't you _dare_, don't you dare tell me that he is going to die. I won't let him."

"There's nothing you can do!" his gaze softened, and he crouched down next to her. "I know this is hard, but unless we find an anomaly back to the right time in the next couple of hours he's going to get worse and the less chance he has of waking up. You need to be realistic here."

Kate swallowed back the tears that were threatening to show. "Then if he's going to die then I am not leaving him here alone."

"Right. Fine. On your head be it. I'm going."

Kate knew he'd go eventually. He'd been threatening to for a couple of days, saying that they needed to move, it wasn't doing any good staying in the same place for so long. But she couldn't leave Castle. She wouldn't leave Castle. If he was going to die, then she wanted – needed – to be there. He'd be stuck to her with glue if it was she was the one currently lying unmoving and barely breathing. "Good luck, Danny." Kate replies, because even though they're both so very different in terms of opinion, she does like him, and she doesn't want him to be eaten by a dinosaur.

"You too, Kate."

* * *

><p>"Well, that's the end of the blood trail, and it leads straight into a nest of dinosaurs. Something tells me that they didn't go this way."<p>

"Unless they got eaten by the dinosaurs."

"Wouldn't there be more blood and guts?"

Esposito shrugged. "I don't have a clue. I'm not exactly familiar with the eating habits of long extinct reptiles."

"I vote we go in the opposite direction. Back past the anomaly. They couldn't have gone far, really."

"Castle! Beckett!" Esposito shouts, his voice echoing off the trees.

Silence, bar the distant squawk of birds. Or maybe a dinosaur. Neither of them can quite tell. "Right, so we keep walking until we find them. Or evidence of them. Or… something."

"You think they're dead?"

"I don't know, Espo. It's not like they can just… cook food. If the dinosaurs haven't got them then the starvation will, if it hasn't already. I'm not holding my breath and hoping for a miracle."

"We're gonna have to tell his mother and kid."

"It's not like it's the first time."

"Yeah… but it's Castle. And think what this is going to do to Beckett's dad."

"We just… won't think about it until we're certain that they're not coming back. I mean, they are tough. And Beckett will have her gun."

"Not hoping for a miracle, right?"

"Well it's not like I want them to be dead." Ryan huffed, turning sharply on his heel and walking swiftly back the way they had come.

* * *

><p>Danny hears them before he sees them. Large clomping footsteps, voices calling out for Castle and Beckett. Two males. Nobody he knows. But… if they're here, then surely that means there's an anomaly. Maybe it's the ARC. Maybe he's finally got a chance of getting home. Castle's got a chance to get better. Him and Beckett can finally sort out… whatever it is between them. He runs towards the noise, crashing through the undergrowth.<p>

"Hello?!"

Danny bursts out onto the same path that he'd walked along a good week and a half ago. Ten metres away were two figures, combat gear and guns. A welcome sight. He runs towards them, hope surging in his veins and skids to a halt behind them.

"I know where they are." He pants, hands on his knees. "Castle and Beckett. I know where they are."


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: I am really sorry about the lack of updates. I've had a lot of health issues, and a bad month. I am trying, and after this I've only got the epilogue to go and it's finished. Thank you for sticking with this, if you have, and thank you for all the reviews. It means a lot.**

**Disclaimer: my therapist isn't called dr burke.**

* * *

><p>Waking up is effort. It's like he's being pulled from a whirlpool and every time he manages to get a limb out, it just sucks him further back in. His head is swimming, his limbs feel heavy and un-cooperative and disorientated. The ceiling, plain and white and utterly <em>boring<em> is spinning above him and it makes his stomach roll and toss and turn. He swallows, his throat dry as sandpaper. He tries to talk but it comes out as an unrecognisable throaty rasp.

"Dad?"

He grunts, tries to turn his head so he can at least look at his daughter. Ow. That hurts. There's a hand on his shoulder, small and slight and then a flash of ginger hair across his vision, leaving orange trails in the paint above him, swirling like milk in a mug of coffee, or comet tails streaking across the night sky. Man, how bad is he?

"Don't try and talk. I'm going to go and get the doctor."

She leaves, and Castle takes the time to close his eyes and think back on what happened. He remembers a cave, and a fire, and Beckett taking her top off. A caveman. Danny? A swimming pool – no, a large pond that doubled as a bath. And dinosaurs? Something about dinosaurs. Is he delusional? Dinosaurs are extinct. Oh, this is making his head hurt.

Kate can't stop her foot tapping as she waits for the coffee machine. It's slow and old and spits hot water onto her hands and frankly it tastes disgusting. Maybe she's gotten too used to Castle's coffee, too spoilt by foamy richne1ss that all the other coffee in the world is useless. She's been in this hospital for the past eight days, ever since they found their way back through the anomaly, Castle held up between Ryan and Esposito. He'd been conscious for a day, though he'd barely moved or eaten, and whenever he'd talked it was short sentences and one word answers. And then, maybe a couple of hours before Ryan and Esposito and Danny ran up to the cave entrance, he'd fallen unconscious, and she'd been unable to get anything out of him then. She'd tried to breathe after that. Tried and failed. Castle was dying in front of her, she was stuck in the prehistoric with dinosaurs and limited ammo and no food. They'd found her crouched against the wall, arms around her legs, forehead against her knee's. There was nothing else she could do. Nothing else she can do. She's wasn't going to leave Castle here, on his own, while she saves her own hide.

There'd been an ambulance waiting when they finally staggered out, Kate all but unconscious herself, worn out from lack of sleep and a decent meal in days. They'd been bundled into the back of an ambulance straight away, and Castle, despite how long and hard she'd fought to stay by his side, had been ripped away from her. She'd been cleaned up, fed, de-briefed and she still hadn't been able to see him. Danny had surprised her at one point, turning up at the hospital, clean and shaven and short haired. "How long do you plan on staying here?"

"As long as it takes."

"You seen him yet?"

"Not properly. Not allowed to until he wakes up. Family only."

Danny nods, seems to understand. "Sucks that." Danny sat next to her, leaning backwards against the wall. "Especially when they are practically family, right?"

Kate turns to him. "What do you mean?"

"I've seen the way you two act. Trust me, you're not fooling anybody."

Kate sighed, pressed the heels of her palms into her brow. "Me and Castle, we're… it's… complicated."

"Look, Kate, I'm not for all the romantic namby pamby. Frankly I find it a load of bollocks. But you two are the most painfully obvious couple I have ever seen. And I've seen the way he looks at you, and I've seen the way you pretend not to notice. And Kate, he's in a hospital room somewhere and you're out here, and damn the rules. Go and see him. Even if he's not awake. He needs to know you're there."

She doesn't know what makes her think of it. She couldn't think of any other way to get them to let her into his room. Her mother's ring is still hanging around in her neck, and Danny laughs when she pulls it from the chain and jams it onto her finger. The weight of it makes her feel different, throws her off balance and she flexes her fingers to try and get used to it. She's going to pretend to be married, just so she can see him. Pretending to be married to him. She hates that she doesn't know what the thumping of her heart against her chest means. Doesn't want to think about it. Can't think about it when Castle is lying in a hospital bed on a ventilator. She keeps her hands fisted as she makes her way towards Castle's room, tries to stop her hands from shaking. His door is closed, and now she's here, now she could just walk into his room, she stops. Stops, and thinks. She's going to walk into the room of a man who loves her. Castle loves her. And she's going to walk into that room and she's going to pretend to be married to him. She's wearing her mother's ring on her finger and – oh God. Her breathe catches in her throat and her chest tightens, and not now. Not in a hospital and not when Castle is fighting for his life, and-

"Kate?"

She turns, trying to regulate her breathing, finds Martha standing in the now open doorway, Alexis hovering behind. "Martha, hi – I – is he… she trails off, watching the older woman carefully for any sign of distress.

Instead, Martha smiles. "He's awake. It's looking better for him. The doctors say the worst is over for him."

Kate releases a breath, feeling all of the guilt and the fear lift from her shoulders. "They said it was family only. Can I-"

Martha smiled. "Darling, I think you practically count as family already. Alexis and I are off home for some rest. He's tired, but he'll be happy to see you. And if anybody asks, tell them I said you could see him."

Kate's struck by a sudden urge to hug Martha, has to dig her elbows into her sides to refrain. "Thank you."

Martha nods in return, steps past her and offers a brief pat on her back. "Thank you for looking after him."

Kate tears off the ring, feels it catch on her knuckle and shoves it deep into her trouser pocket. Calm. She can do calm. This isn't about her, it's about him. Making sure he's better. And he looks better. Pale and interesting, but he's better. And he's smiling at her. Oh, she didn't realise how much she'd missed that smile.

"Kate."

She smiles, steps further into the room. "Hey, Castle."

"You look worse than me, have you actually slept?"

She smiled, somewhat sheepishly, slipping into the chair next to his bed. "You're the one with malaria."

"And have you actually been home?"

"Only for showers and clean clothes. I've been here most of the time." Kate looks down, wipes at the blood appearing on her finger. "Wanted to be there when you woke up."

"You shouldn't have. You need sleep. And food. You look like death warmed up."

"We match then. I don't mind, Castle. Just wanted to make sure that you were okay."

"I'm okay. Honestly. And I've already sent Alexis and Martha home, don't make me do the same to you."

"I would like to see you try."

"You underestimate my powers of persuasion, Beckett."

"You underestimate my stubbornness."

Castle chuckled, but it was low and hoarse and it took him a while to speak up again. "If there's one thing I don't underestimate, it's your stubbornness."

"So, how long are you staying in here for?"

"I don't know. Maybe a week. I might do a runner if I'm fed up of this place tomorrow." He grinned. "Don't suppose you wanna help?"

"I don't know, the longer you're in here the longer you're not bugging me at work."

"Oh, and there was me actually thinking you cared."

"I care about the amount of paperwork you'd leave me with."

"I can see straight through you, Katherine Beckett. You like having me around. Admit it."

"Maybe. When you're not high on drugs."

Castle frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I'm not admitting anything until you're drug free." Kate replied, surprised at her ability to keep her eyes on Castle.

"Admit… what?"

"Castle."

"No, no Kate, you can't." He tried to sit up, tried to tilt his body towards her but his face pales and he sags, his breathing harsh and rapid. Kate moves to push him back against pillows, pushes the oxygen mask against his mouth until his breathing is somewhat normal. His eyes are closed, and it takes her a moment to notice that his hand is gripping hers, his nails leaving little crescent shapes in her skin. She moves her hand so she can hold his properly, strokes her thumb across his knuckles.

She doesn't realise she's crying until he's lifting both their hands and using his thumb to wipe away a tear. Now she's the one with the death grip on his hand. He's watching her, those blue eyes that are usually so bright, so full of life, they're dull and tired. He's thinner, and not in a good away. He looks like he's wasting away, and she can't do this. Not right now. Not when he's like this.

"When you're better, Castle. When you're better, we'll talk."

"You're not going, are you?" he croaks, his gaze still fixated on her.

She smiles, softly, squeezing his hand. "No, Castle. I'm staying right here."


End file.
